It seems a shame to describe any Women In Prison picture as "tedious", but this Italian production just fails to be that interesting for its first half. It takes a while to get to any rioting that's going to be done. Fortunately, along the way there are choice scenes that lovers of cinematic trash will adore. They just have to wade through a lot of talk to get to them. This wouldn't be so bad if the movie weren't so horribly dubbed, though: the dialogue is pretty hard to make out at times (not that aficionados of this sort of thing would really care about dialogue).
Performances are mostly adequate in this tale of French tourist Martine Fresienne (Martine Brochard), vacationing in Italy, who just happens to be present when cops bust a bunch of hippies. As it happens, some drugs are planted on Martine, so she's busted with the rest of them and sent to prison - a typical enough prison for W.I.P. fare. Martine makes the acquaintance of Susan (Marilu Tolo), a loud, aggressive inmate who's the kind of person who makes things happen.
If you've read this far, you'll be pleased to know that the movie delivers what you could expect, including an extended shower scene. There's plenty of bare female flesh to admire, always extremely important for the genre. The highlights of the movie include an inmate pleasuring herself in the shower, Susan doing the same in the yard in order to tease a guard, the supreme embarrassment of a hot young nun (Cristina Galbo), the strip tease performed by Isabelle (Isabelle De Valvert), and a rather poetically done lesbian sex scene. With things like this going on, it's understandable that the viewers aren't going to care a whole lot about the story. The standout among the actresses is striking brunette Tolo, who comes complete with a particularly bad dubbing job.
Running a mere 81 minutes, this obviously pretty obscure movie has been resurrected on DVD by the grindhouse collection started by Charles Bands' Full Moon company. Completists will definitely want to give it a look.
Six out of 10.
